Albert Barnes Commentary Joshua 13:8-33

"With him the Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond the Jordan eastward, even as Moses the servant of Jehovah gave them: from Aroer, that is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the plain of Medeba unto Dibon; and all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, unto the border of the children of Ammon; and Gilead, and the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and all mount Hermon, and all Bashan unto Salecah; all the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei (the same was left of the remnant of the Rephaim); for these did Moses smite, and drove them out. Nevertheless the children of Israel drove not out the Geshurites, nor the Maacathites: but Geshur and Maacath dwell in the midst of Israel unto this day. Only unto the tribe of Levi he gave no inheritance; the offerings of Jehovah, the God of Israel, made by fire are his inheritance, as he spake unto him. And Moses gave unto the tribe of the children of Reuben according to their families. And their border was from Aroer, that is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the plain by Medeba; Heshbon, and all its cities that are in the plain; Dibon, and Bamoth-baal, and Beth-baal-meon, and Jahaz, and Kedemoth, and Mephaath, and Kiriathaim, and Sibmah, and Zereth-shahar in the mount of the valley, and Beth-peor, and the slopes of Pisgah, and Beth-jeshimoth, and all the cities of the plain, and all the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses smote with the chiefs of Midian, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, the princes of Sihon, that dwelt in the land. Balaam also the son of Beor, the soothsayer, did the children of Israel slay with the sword among the rest of their slain. And the border of the children of Reuben was the Jordan, and the border [thereof]. This was the inheritance of the children of Reuben according to their families, the cities and the villages thereof. And Moses gave unto the tribe of Gad, unto the children of Gad, according to their families. And their border was Jazer, and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the children of Ammon, unto Aroer that is before Rabbah; and from Heshbon unto Ramath-mizpeh, and Betonim; and from Mahanaim unto the border of Debir; and in the valley, Beth-haram, and Beth-nimrah, and Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon king of Heshbon, the Jordan and the border [thereof], unto the uttermost part of the sea of Chinnereth beyond the Jordan eastward. This is the inheritance of the children of Gad according to their families, the cities and the villages thereof. And Moses gave [inheritance] unto the half-tribe of Manasseh: and it was for the half-tribe of the children of Manasseh according to their families. And their border was from Mahanaim, all Bashan, all the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, and all the towns of Jair, which are in Bashan, threescore cities: and half Gilead, and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, the cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, were for the children of Machir the son of Manasseh, even for the half of the children of Machir according to their families. These are the inheritances which Moses distributed in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan at Jericho, eastward. But unto the tribe of Levi Moses gave no inheritance: Jehovah, the God of Israel, is their inheritance, as he spake unto them." — Joshua 13:8-33 (ASV)

The writer adds to the command of God (Joshua 13:1–7) a statement that the other two and a half tribes had already had their inheritance marked out for them by Moses in the land east of the Jordan. The boundaries of this territory as a whole are first set forth (Joshua 13:8–14), and afterward the portions assigned within it to the two and a half tribes are individually described (Joshua 13:15–33).

Joshua 13:14. See Deuteronomy 18:1-5 and notes.

Joshua 13:15–24. Inheritance of the tribe of Reuben. This territory was the most southerly of the trans-Jordanian possessions of Israel and adjoined Moab, which lay just on the other side of the Arnon. Hence, the Reubenites in later times became very intermixed with the Moabites, who in fact eventually acquired much of the land, and several, if not all, of the cities named here as belonging to Reuben. This acquisition was probably assisted by the fact that the territory north of the Arnon had formerly belonged to the Moabites, from whom it was wrested by the Amorites (see Numbers 21:27 and following, notes).

It is not likely that the Amorite conquerors had completely wiped out the Moabite inhabitants. Hence, in the days when the Reubenites became engrossed in their pastoral pursuits, and probably not very long after the time of Joshua, the Moabites easily encroached on their inheritance and, in the end, probably reoccupied nearly the whole of the ancient kingdom of Sihon (Compare Deuteronomy 33:6 note).

Joshua 13:17–21. See the marginal references for some of these names. Heshbon, Kedemoth, and Mephaath eventually became Levitical cities.

Joshua 13:21. Dukes of Sihon – Rather “vassals of Sihon,” probably those “dedicated” or “appointed” with a libation.

Joshua 13:23. Jordan ... – that is, the Jordan and its territory (compare similar expressions in Numbers 34:6; Deuteronomy 3:16). The portion of the tribe of Reuben at its northern extremity touched the Jordan; the main part of its inheritance lay on the east of the Dead Sea.

Joshua 13:25. All the cities of Gilead – that is, of Gilead in the narrower sense, included in the territory of Sihon, and distinct from Bashan (Deuteronomy 3:10).

Half the land of the children of Ammon – that is, that half of the Ammonite territory which had been conquered by the Amorites. This, after the overthrow of Sihon, the Israelites took for their own. The land which the Ammonites still held in the time of Moses, the Israelites were not permitted to attack.

Rabbah was a border fortress, the principal stronghold of the Ammonites (Numbers 21:24), and the residence of their king. It was attacked and taken by Joab (2 Samuel 11:0; 2 Samuel 12:0; 1 Chronicles 20:1), but appears in later times again as an Ammonite city (Jeremiah 49:3; Ezekiel 25:5; Amos 1:13–15).

In the third century B.C., it received from Ptolemy Philadelphus the name of Philadelphia and was in later times the seat of a Christian bishop. It has now for many centuries been in ruins, remarkable for their grandeur and extent.

Joshua 13:26. The border of Debir – Rather, perhaps, “the border of Lidbir,” which is regarded as identical with the Lo-debar of 2 Samuel 9:4; 2 Samuel 17:27, one of the towns from which provisions were brought to David at Mahanaim (Genesis 32:2).

Joshua 13:29–33. On the conquest of Bashan, see especially Numbers 32:33 and following, and notes.